Star Wars: The Second Rebellion
by Akerin
Summary: "I have you now." The dark lord says as his fighter locks onto the X-wing in front of him. He would fire, laser beams flying at the ship flown by Luke Skywalker. Then Han Solo would come in and save him, but what if he didn't come back? The star fighter would get shot down and the death star would quickly destroy Yavin 4. Killing the Leia and the rest of the rebellion.
1. Episode 1: The Successor

_Aboard the Imperial flagship, Calamity._

The bridge was filled with chatter, the humongous room had hundreds admirals from the many Imperial fleets. While their discussions were varied with multiple different topics they all were thinking about one single thing. The Emperor's death, all of them wanted the position, they all knew that. So every discussion was made to hide the distrust and hatred they all felt for one another, not a single one of the admirals was trustworthy.

The Emperor's health had always been in constant decline. It's not like it was an unnatural decline of health, the man was over a century old. In recent months, he's been on life support, it has just barely been keeping him alive. The whole reason the admirals were here was because his life support system had failed temporarily, they all were just waiting for the confirmation from Lord Vader.

The room would instantaneously fall silent when the two large doors leading into the room open. The only noise in that moment would be the sound of deep breathing. Darth Vader, enters the room and walks forward straight through the crowd. The admirals all move out of his way as his loud footsteps echo quietly in the room. He walks in front of a flight of stairs and steps up them. He reaches the top and stands beside the throne that lays at the top.

The admirals all watch, some nearly scared, others becoming impatient at his lack of acknowledging the fate of the Emperor. But he just stands there, still the only noise being his deep breathes. Eventually an annoyed admiral would walk up the stairs up to Vader. Once he arrives at the top, he asks Vader a question.

"Lord Vader, is the Emperor dead?"

In an instant, Vader spins around and turns on his light saber, pointing it at the admiral before reaching out with his arm and using the force to pull the admiral to him. The saber impales the admiral through the chest. Then he turns off his light saber as the admiral drops to his knees and collapses.

"The Emperor is still alive, he orders that you will all return to your designated sectors of the galaxy and continue your operations! I shall select his successor, you will be notified if you have been chosen." He shouts, loudly and clearly angered his robotic voice echoes throughout the bridge.

The dark lord would turn around to look out the bridges windows into the emptiness of space. Over time all the admiralty leave the bridge to their shuttles. Once the admirals have all left the ship, Vader sends an order to the pilots to take the ship into hyperspace. The destination having already been put into the system.

He would stare out as the ship begins it's jump, watching as the stars change into lines. Every time, every single team he watches his ship go into hyperspace he is reminded of when he was young. The clone wars, when his master was still alive and he had a true apprentice. When the men he worked with weren't corrupt cowards. Now he lives alone, hated by all including himself, wanting nothing more than to just die. But he can't, he won't let himself.

His thoughts float through his head for so long he doesn't even realize when the ship comes out of hyperspace. The lava planet in front of the ship being where Lord Vader was born.

"Lord Vader? Your shuttle is ready." A single voice would say behind Vader.

Vader turns around to see a storm trooper standing at the foot of the steps. He doesn't say anything as he walks down the steps and passes the soldier on his way to the hangar. He boards his personnel shuttle, he stands up front behind the pilot and co-pilot. The shuttle lifts off carefully from the hangar and flies out, heading towards the surface.

The planet below is a magna filled lava planet and it's the true birth place of Darth Lord, Mustafar. The shuttle hurls itself through the atmosphere already knowing where to go. A large structure comes into distance, clear to Vader it is a Sith temple of his own creation. He ordered it's construction when the Emperor first ordered a successor for himself.

The shuttle would hover above a landing pad for a moment before touching down, the ramp on the rear of the ship lowering down and extending to the ground. He would step onto the ramp and walk down the pathway. As he continues on a straightforward path he reaches two stone doors with carvings of the old Sith. He feels hatred and anger just by viewing this place.

Without moving his arms, he uses the force to open the doors, moving them outwards on a hinge, making a sound of rock slabs sliding. Once fully open, he enters into a hallway, covered in darkness. As he walks, the feeling starts to get stronger, he grips his fist while walking. Eventually he sees a dim red light, as he nears the light he feels physically pressured to release his pain onto anything around him.

The sound of his deep breathing is the only sound as Vader enters the dimly lit red room. The room is completely filled with Sith texts, Sith holocrons, as well as containing objects of extreme hatred and sorrow. Hundreds of these objects lined the room. One of these objects draws his attention no matter how many times he enters the room. A light saber, the one belonging to the long deceased Anakin Skywalker. He found it outside the Death Star following the destruction of Yavin 4.

The feelings that Vader experiences would make any force user go insane, unless they were strong enough to withstand the pressure. That is what Vader needed for his last order.

On the wall opposite the hallway, 6 metallic doors line that side of the room. He moves to the first one on the left and the door would automatically open. Inside was a young man, no older than 18, on one knee with both arms raised above him. Above him is a Large stone, at least 50 tons that he is supporting using the force. If he falters for even a second the rock would come down and crush him. Grunting in pain, he turns to see Vader in the doorway.

"Are you prepared to become my apprentice?" Vader would ask, his robotic voice lacking any emotion.

" **I'M GOING... TO KILL YOU!"**

"Good." Vader reaches his arm forward and uses to force to lift the stone to the roof, letting the person leave. After, he moves over to the 2nd door the door automatically opening. Inside once again is another young man, although younger than the previous one, being no older than 15. In the same predicament as the first, using the force to stop himself from being crushed. Quickly, Vader repeats the question again.

"Are you prepared to become my apprentice?"

"Yes! Yes I am... Master! I'll do anything!"

"It appears you are not prepared."

"NO! NO, WA-" He would scream desperately as Vader walks away, the door shutting behind him, silencing his screams.

He moves to the next door, followed by the first man. The door opens, but with a single glance Vader knew what had happened. The stone slab lay on the ground, no force user to speak of.

Vader would then go to the fourth door, it opens automatically as well. Showing a sight he had not expected, inside was another force user, this one older than the rest, being in his mid 20's. Unlike the rest, he was not captured, Vader selected him from the Imperial ranks.

Around the man, lay pieces of the shattered stone, it just lays as dust on the ground, the entire rock crushed using the force.

"Yes, I am ready." He says looking up at Vader with both hate and determination. Vader would not respond, instead he would wait for the man to leave his room before moving to the next door. It opens to show another person holding up the ginormous stone. This man was at most 20, every muscle in his body tensed as he focused on the stone. Once again he would ask the same question.

"Are you prepared to become my apprentice?" Vader says in his monotone robotic voice, but the man would stare at Vader before speaking.

"You... Expect me to bend to your will? I...Do not plan on...Being a pet to the Emperor... Like you already are!" He would shout at the Dark Lord.

Vader would stay silent, but after a moment he would reach out with his hand and use the force to snap the bones in his right leg. The man would scream in pain, just for an instant, before being crushed by the stone that crashed down onto him.

Vader would lead the two following him to the final door, once again it opens automatically to reveal the final force user, he was also a young adult, holding up the stone above him while on one knee. The man would look at the door to see Vader, before Vader even asks his question, he can both sense the pure rage within the person as well as see the hatred in the gaze he gives Vader. The person gets up onto both feet, lifting the stone higher. He both lifts the stone and begins to walk towards the door, eventually he gets to the exit and lets the stone smash into the ground.

With Vader having his three candidates, he would turn away from them. Then immediately begin force choking the three of them, lifting them off the ground. They all struggle under the grip.

"You have now been reborn, your previous selves no longer exist. Forget everything about them, you no longer have the same name, you have no name until I have deemed you worthy. The training you will be put through will go on indefinitely until only 1 of you is left alive. Do I make myself clear?" Vader drops his hand, letting the three of his apprentices drop to the ground.

In almost perfect unison, with rasp and coarse voices they answer Vader.

"Yes, master."


	2. Episode 2: Speaking to Whoever Listens

_**Pilia**_

Taris, this once urbanized utopia has been reduced to an overpopulated, almost apocalyptic wasteland. It's not like there hasn't been time to rebuild, it has been thousands of years since the planet was attacked by the old Sith order. But no one has the money to fix up the planet, not even the Imperial governor has the funds to get anything done. It's no simple task either, they would have to clean the incredible amounts of pollution in the air, salvage and deconstruct the crashed ships, tear down basically EVERY towering building, because almost all are beyond repair, find away to deal with the overgrowing fauna and fungus. But the most difficult part, would be finding out how to kill the Rakghouls and cure the plague that has ravaged the planet for over a millennium.

Although, no one in the empire cares enough to help the people here. Not even the people LIVING ON THIS PLANET care enough to help! I could go around, asking as many people as I possibly could and not a single person would try to chime in.

Well... That's a lie, because there are two of us who want to help! My brother and I have been trying to rally people not just to help our planet, but against the tyranny of the empire! Heroic, I know, and yeah VERY big picture, my brother's the one who tries to keep it realistic. But do-

 _"OW!"_ I flinch, being shocked by a wire that I was trying to connect to the transmitter station.

"Woah! What happened? I saw sparks from here!" A voice from outside the room would say.

"Nothing! Don't worry about it!" Turning my head towards the window I see my brother poke his head into view with a smug smile on his face.

"Aha! I told you that you would mess it up! Haha!" Finding it way too funny he starts to laugh.

"Shush your mouth! I'll get it!" I hold the wires further down from the connection points before placing the ends together. But once again jumping back as the electric shock travels through her fingers, just to hear her brother continue laughing.

"Agh, Blasted! Mechanical! JUNK! Fine! If it's so easy Verdo, YOU do it!" I say back frustratingly.

He moves away from the window and walks around towards the room's door-less entrance. Quickly walking towards the large desk against the wall, which contains the microphone and recording equipment. He picks up a metallic, hollow cylinder off the top of the desk.

After seeing it I immediately remember what I was supposed to do! I completely forgot about it, but he's already about to fix my mistake.

He puts the piece on one end of the wire, before connecting the other wire to the other end of the cylinder. He twists the object which makes a quiet popping noise. He tucks the wire under the desk before spinning to face me.

"There you go."

"Well while you're down here you wouldn't mind finishing the station for me, would you? My hands are killing me." I say with the most pathetic face jokingly.

"Do you want to be able to talk tonight? Because we are NOT staying past dark." He crosses his arms, becoming a bit more serious.

"No... Of course not." I say back, matching his serious tone.

"That's right, so I need you to fix the transmitter, while I finish setting up the antennae." With that, he leaves and climbs up onto the roof.

I go back to configuring the wires between the recording station and the transmitter station. You see, THIS is how we have been rallying people against the empire. Every night, we go out and send a transmission out for people to listen to, we influence people into finally going against the empire.

But these transmissions don't only go out to the people of Taris, we have found a way to send a transmission to every receiver of every frequency in the WHOLE galaxy! But you may be thinking, _but wait! Wouldn't the empire also get these transmissions, couldn't they just track you to the planet?_

You would be right, except we have found 2 ways to keep the empire from finding us. First off, our frequency is VERY specific, you have to get the number down to the millionth, it's THAT specific I don't even think the empire knows we exist. And even if they figured out how to find out the frequency we have a countermeasure. Whenever we activate our signal, the receiver that receives it automatically sends the exact same signal back, so if they wanted to find out where we were, they would have to go to EVERY SINGLE SIGNAL in the entire galaxy!

We've been doing this for 2 months now and I think this is probably be the most important thing of our lives, but my brother doesn't agree with me. He thinks this is just too dangerous, and that there are better things we could be doing to help out people. And while I say he's wrong, I can understand why he thinks so.

For the entire 2 months we have been sending out a signal, we haven't gotten a single response from... Anyone. While Verdo says no one cares enough, I think it would be more likely that people haven't found the signal.

But I doubt that's the case, because just a month after we started sending out messages, for the first time in 15 years there was an attack on Imperial troops. An explosion killed a storm trooper and damaged a TIE-Transport, causing it to crash and kill the pilot. I like to think that's because I inspired them to do it, my brother doesn't share my optimism.

But I'm scared that one of these days now he may give up hope on this. Because last week, our radio got trashed by one of the gangs in town. Normally we have to pay a tenth of what we earn at our jobs, do a mission for them, or give something to them for "protection" because they own our sector of town. Last week we didn't do that, we had no time for a mission, we used our extra money and scrap to fix up our home. So they broke into our house and stole a bunch of stuff we needed for our transmitter

We stored up for a week and got enough to replace what was stolen, moved the entire thing into one of the nearly collapsed towers. These towers are quite far away from the town, so they will be MUCH harder to find. The only problem is we have to travel on a path through Rakghoul infested territory, although they will only attack travelers on the path during nighttime.

 _VVVVVRRRRRMMM_

The transmitter would light up as a quiet noise rumbles inside it, puttering for a second before going back to normal. I could hear the footsteps coming from the roof and I would see Verdo peak down through the window.

"Hey good job! You got it, I can get the antennae to work soon and then we can sync the two together." He compliments, his hair hanging straight down as he looks through upside down.

"Well then get up there and get back to work. How's the sky? Think I will have time?" I get up onto my feet as I ask him the question, I stroll over to the window and lean against the wall next to it. I could hear Verdo breath through his teeth as he pushed himself back and looked up.

"If it takes me less than 20 minutes yeah you'll have time, but you'll have to keep it short." He says before returning to his work, I could hear the sound of the melder as Verdo uses it to set up the antennae.

I slide down the wall before looking out the window and seeing the view which is both beautiful and depressing. The window is in a room 40 stories over the ground, tilting slightly because of structural damage some 20 stories below. Now it seems incredibly out of place and almost damage, but that is why it's perfect! No one would think to look here and no one goes into the buildings anymore. But that's why it's sad, looking out the building you can see where a large road used to be, tens of thousands of people could have been in this one block alone.

Rakghouls will kill and murder anyone who walks through here in just a few hours, not even Imperial troops will dare leave after dark. I've seen them too, they are terrifying, they'll smell you before they see you and you'll hear them before you see them. Something as small as a scratch will get you infected and while there is something you can take to stop you from getting infected, it works once and if the cut doesn't heal within a week you're going to be executed so you don't turn.

My brother and I are lucky for never being touched by them but many others fair much worse than us. Including ou-

"Hey we should try to sync them up now!" Verdo suggested, cutting off my train of thought.

"Alright!" She agrees, standing up and shuffling over to the desk and to the transmitter, already knowing which signal to sync it to.

"Three, two, one!" Verdo shouts loud enough for me to hear, as I turn I crank it to the signal and with a satisfying hum confirming the synchronization, Verdo cheers.

"First time! Alright sis, give it a go!" He says, about to come down into the room as I move the mic in front of me and begin to speak.

"Hello listeners! I am EXTREMELY sorry about not talking for the long break. We got into a bit of trouble and had to move locations, don't worry it wasn't anything with the empire. But I'm back! With not a lot of information today, or a lot of time." I begun to just ramble into the mic, just blabbing out every thing that popped into my mind while Verdo just looked out the window into the vast distance while listening to what his little sister was saying.

Verdo kept track of the time while she just spoke more and more. He was almost jealous of the way she could manage to keep speaking continuously while being extremely honest. Criticizing the empire and the criminals of the galaxy while also enticing the people to rise up. Everyone already knows the tyranny of the Empire, the genocide of Alderaan and Yavin IV, enslavement of the Wookies, and more recently the enslavement of the Mon Calamari.

The Emperor must pay for all his crimes, he could not be allowed to sit on his throne and continue to rule while all of his actions go unpunished. Along with him was his lackey Darth Vader, he would be equally punished once we rise against him! As I got deep into a conversation with only myself I felt my brother place a hand onto my shoulder, signaling that it was time to go.

"But that's all for today, tomorrow I will be back for sure this time. For all those who are brave enough to stand against everything wrong in our galaxy, we are speaking to whoever listens." I say as a goodbye before turning off mic, then the rest of the equipment. The synchronized humming slowing down before going silent.

The room went silent as we both left from a 2nd door leading to a hallway, also tilted at an angle we had to walk a fairly steep incline to get to the elevator shaft. The whole building was made of metal and after millenniums of no upkeep, every part of it is rusted. The hallways were a brown-red mix instead of a bright silver. Eventually we got to the elevator shift where we walked down carefully, if we tripped we would tumble down a long way.

Almost 10 minutes of walking down we reached the area where the building ripped and fell onto another building. The from where the elevator is, the tear is 20 feet from the lowest dropping point, but a rope in the elevator shaft dangles the entire distance and is the only way up and down in a... semi-safe manner. Verdo goes down first and slowly slides down to the shredded metal, I follow after so he can catch me if I slip. But I get down on my own safely and we continue down through a flight of stairs.

Now that's how you can tell this building is incredibly old, it has STAIRS from the bottom floor to top. We couldn't go down on the upper section because of the tilt, but the lower section is under the torn section so we could walk down those and just leave the building.

We walked through some tall grass until eventually reaching the main path used by travelers, traders, the "Protection" gangs, and occasionally imperial forces when some big name criminal hides on Taris.

"VERDO! Hey! That you?" A voice asks from behind us. Both of us turn around as we see 7 people jog up behind us, I recognized the person who asked, his name was Jaxun... Our gang's leader. Like most of the people near where we leave, he was young at most 25, at least 18. Most people don't even live long enough to get old, or they just up and leave.

"And his little sister!" He says confidently, "What's your name little missy?" He questions, talking to me as if I were just a child. But before I could even speak, Verdo probably could tell from how Jax acted that I was about to say something dumb.

"Sure is! Such a joy to live with, almost makes it tolerable to stand how much of a nuisance she I- Ow!" I quickly hit him with a light punch and he responded putting on an over the top show of pain.

It may seem like we are just having fun but in all honesty, Verdo and I are both terrified. We didn't pay up our protection fees last time, so we are trying to keep things light so he doesn't bring up that serious event.

"Well what I want to know is, what were you two doing out here?" Immediately I froze up, if he finds out about what we were doing! We were lucky his goon didn't think twice when damaging it the first time, luckily Verdo covered for me.

"You remember the drop that a bunch of people said they saw a couple weeks back? We heard it was still out there so we went to try and find it, bring some back day by day, or just let you know and you could send people to bring it all back." He lies, keeping a confident voice.

"I haven't heard about anyone finding it yet so I guess it makes sense, but you better find something soon, or start working because... I heard you didn't pay up your fees this week." He says, making the tone shift drastically.

"Yeah, I'm sorry about that Jax, you won't have to worry about it this time though!" Verdo claims.

"Another gangs encroaching on our territory and we found a Rakghoul den nearby town, so you better be prepared, less you want us to give them some fresh food." He threatens and looks at me, making me avert my gaze from him. I feel uncomfortable as his eyes star at me, almost like he's studying me until Verdo finally steps in-between us and asks Jax a question.

"Well anyways what were you doing out here? We can walk and talk at the same time, I don't want to be out once it turns dark." He says concerned, the sky was already beginning to change shades of color as dusk started to set in.

"Ah of course, we... set poison into a Rakghoul den so we could scavenge the area later." He quickly explained as everyone started to move, the other gang members break into their own conversation.

The conversation still feels tense for me and Verdo but they actually talk like we weren't just threatened. Jax slowly starting to get bored with Verdo continuously asking questions and stretches. For the couple of seconds he raises his arm above his head and I get a glance at his belt, there was a personal hologram/transmission receiver. It had something scratched onto the small thing's side, letters. Right before Jax covers it again, I make out that the last letters ended in -ens.

The walk back while seeming like it took long was a short 30 minutes, we did eventually split apart. Verdo and I went back to our house and after a few more minutes of preparing to sleep, we get into the bed for the rest of the night.


End file.
